SemperFiProf

Friday, October 24, 2008

A Canadian writer has pretty much nailed the Democratic ticket as hypocrites in this column. Both Barack Obama and Joe Biden give very little to charity, but plan to give your money to those that do not even pay taxes. Read about it here and I think you will be surprised.

To add to the mortgage meltdown miseries, the credit panic, the plunging home sales and the rising foreclosures, here's a new worry: a proposed cutoff of mortgage-interest tax deductions for houses with more than 3,000 square feet.

Besides imposing hefty new federal taxes on gasoline, the forthcoming bill would, in Dingell's words, seek to "remove the mortgage interest deduction on McMansions -- homes over 3,000 square feet." Dingell said he recognizes that such a proposal will spark much criticism, but he also said it is essential to reducing carbon emissions by 60 percent to 80 percent by 2050.

"In order to address the issue of climate change, we must address the issue of consumption," Dingell said in talking points prepared for town-hall discussions of the legislation. "We do that by making consumption more expensive." More here.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Senator Biden, the Vice Presidential Nominee said last week, "Mark my words," the Democratic vice presidential nominee warned at the second of his two Seattle fundraisers Sunday. "It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."

"I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate," Biden said to Emerald City supporters, mentioning the Middle East and Russia as possibilities. "And he's gonna need help. And the kind of help he's gonna need is, he's gonna need you - not financially to help him - we're gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it's not gonna be apparent initially, it's not gonna be apparent that we're right."

My take? Iran is planning on attacking Israel. A few rockets on Tel Aviv followed by a Naval Blockade of Israel and the Strait of Hormuz. President Obama will respond, by not supporting Israel and forcing a two-state solution on Israel and a return to the 1967 borders and a divided Jerusalem. Senator Biden is correct; we will not think he is right. Pretty frightening as Senator Biden actually get intelligence briefings and though he does not articulate it well, probably does know something about the threat.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Finally, I must say that the probable election of Barack Obama has a bit of a silver lining for me (even though the rationale for voting for him escapes me). I have job security, I have a pretty secure retirement even if the economy goes south, and I depend on government spending for a good deal of the money I make. McCain scares me because I think he really will hold the line on spending (as the next president should). That will be detrimental to my personal financial situation. As such, although I disagree with Obama on matters of national security (very strongly) and the economy (strongly, but somewhat less so), I am not lying awake at night worrying about what he will do to my finances. It's everyone else I worry about.

JOE BIDEN, (D) VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We are about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old president of the United States of America.

Remember I said it standing here, if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we are going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy. He's going to have to make some really tough — I don't know what the decisions will be — but I promise you, it will occur.

And he continues to say that his decisions will not be correct. Do we really want someone completely untested? I think not.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Watching the polls these days is interesting. As someone with a doctorate, I am suspicious of most polls. Polls can be weighted, dishonest and yes, people lie. So I will just highlight something from Stanford Predicts from Nov, 2, 2004:

November 02, 2004

Until next time...

The last days have shown a clear and unexpected trend favoring Kerry in the presidential race. Polls in key states, particularly Florida, have led us to update our probabilities of who wins these states, and as a result the "roll-up" of all these probabilities at the Electoral College level, as reported on our main page, led to final odds favoring Kerry.

Surely, this "final answer" is but a probabilistic one, and should not be interpreted as us calling the winner.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Senator: please tell President Bush to stay off of the news and the television. For the past few weeks, virtually every day, news outlets and particularly all cable news shows run a clip of the President at the podium announcing that he has just come from the latest working group to fix banks, the mortgage industry and so on. The American Public sees this and becomes disgusted, angry and blames Republicans. You are a Republican, so you are, in their minds, part of the problem. You might have a chance to paint Senator Obama as the extremist he is, if your President would just go away and be silent. Please tell him.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Tax Prof Blog does a good job here explaining the tax cut that Senator Obama proposes. In clear English is rather easy to see that 1) he wants your money and 2) he will give some of it back, but not much.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

One news source thinks it is likely. If you don't know what that is, see the explanation from the Council on Foreign Relations site here and if you are not concerned, you should be. And this is from the site as well:

Does sharia apply only to religious matters?

No. Sharia governs all aspects of life, from relations between men and women to ethics in business and banking. Europe is changing rapidly with Muslims from all over descending on them and not assimilating. For more on this, see here and worry.

David Freddoso, who knows more about Barack Obama than not just anyone but everyone combined in the MSM, remarks that is it not just the fact of Obama’s associations with a cast of bizarre characters:

McCain must also point to Obama’s failures of leadership in connection with these associations, for this is far more important than the associations themselves. . .

As chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, an educational reform project that Ayers founded, Obama presided over a waste of $160 million in donors’ money. The project, under his leadership, failed to improve student achievement in the 210 Chicago schools where it operated, according to the Annenberg Challenge’s final report. And to this day, that project is Obama’s only significant executive experience.

I am not sure when we will ever learn that dealing with dictators just does not work, but we are trying again. Daniel Halper is correct in his observations, here. The sheer brutality of the regime remains so out of the mainstream that we should not even be talking to them.